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Collecting Old Glass, English and Irish

Chapter 86: XIII. BOWLS, LIFTERS, SUGAR-CRUSHERS, SPOONS, ETC.
By Sir J. H. Yoxall
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About This Book

A practical handbook for collectors of English and Irish antique glass that classifies blown, moulded, cut, engraved, and coloured wares and describes common stem, bowl, and vessel types. It sets out seven tests for assessing age and authenticity, explains identification of drinking glasses, tumblers, bottles, decanters, table and decorative items, and discusses cutting and colouring techniques. The narrative combines hands‑on collecting tips, pricing observations, connoisseurship advice, and warnings about forgeries, with structured chapters and illustrations intended to help beginners develop the sight, touch, and judgment needed to seek, buy, and care for old glass.

XIII. BOWLS, LIFTERS, SUGAR-CRUSHERS, SPOONS, ETC.

Large cut-glass bowls, and plain bowls, exist, perhaps too small for punch (except the Bristol painted opal-glass ones), but big enough for fruit or salads. Often these stand on feet and stems. Finger bowls of plain blown and of cut glass are found. Coloured glass bowls, of Bristol blue, green, violet, or red, are desirable acquisitions. The earliest form of finger bowl was not a finger glass so much as a wine cooler or glass rinser; these have two projecting lips or ears opposite each other, to support the glass as it lay in the water rinsing or cooling.

COLLARLESS, CUT, AND COLLARED “LIFTERS”: THE MIDDLE COLLAR REPRESENTS A “FILLET”

The toddy lifter, punch lifter, or grog lifter is an interesting glass article; I own seven, though examples are quite rare. There are several shapes. When the lower part is a high-shouldered decanter shape it is said to be a punch lifter, and English; when the lower part is round and shoulderless, like a club, it is Scottish and a toddy lifter. In most cases there is a fillet or collar of glass round the neck, and these are called ring-necked; the absence of the ring is rare. The bowl is of the size required for an ordinary glassful, for the lifters were used to transfer punch, toddy, or grog from the punch-bowl to the glass. The earlier way of doing this was by a silver or wooden ladle, but about the year 1800 the glass lifter (which is really a pipette or siphon) came into use. When the base of the lifter sank into the punch, the punch rose into the bowl of it by a hole in the bottom of it; the thumb then closed the hole at the top of the neck, thus creating a vacuum. Then the lifter could be carried over the table to the glass, and when the thumb was taken away the punch ran down into the glass.

Glass sugar crushers, plain, cut, or ridged with spirals, are found, with a pestle-like end to them. Glass spoons are rare. Glass knives are found, but most of them are doubtful. Pestles of Nailsea glass are seen, perhaps once used by ladies in their still-rooms; maybe glass mortars to match them may turn up.

Knife rests for the table are found, some plain moulded, some cut, some even with spirals inside them.